Pizzazz dynasty ripples through Westman volleyball

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This article was published 26/06/2021 (1669 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s tough to find a volleyball court in Brandon without a little Pizzazz on it.

Truth be told, the game would not be where it is in Westman today if not for the team that dominated Brandon’s senior men’s league with 16 straight titles from 1990 to 2005.

While most senior men’s sports aren’t much more than a chance to get exercise, hang out with old friends and replenish calories spent in liquid form afterward, Pizzazz was different. Fuelled by fiercely competitive characters and a hatred for losing at any level, the team kept the men deeply invested in volleyball. More than a dozen of them still coach to this day, including Brandon University men’s head coach Grant Wilson. A bunch have kids now competing across Canada in the U Sports and college ranks.

Former Assiniboine Community College Cougar Ken Slate put the wheels in motion in 1988. He was coming off a league title with Six Pack, but the team had veterans returning after a year away. Slate, along with University of Manitoba Bisons middle Kelly Dunkley, scanned the city for potential players and assembled a young team called the Encounters Night Club Shooters.

“We were a young bunch of guys and keen for anything … we just wanted to play,” Slate said.

BU didn’t have volleyball yet and ACC program had recently folded. Neither would compete for more than a decade still, so senior men’s was the best ball in town.

The team lost a semifinal in 1989, then rebranded as Pizzazz, loaded up on talent and never looked back.

These days it might seem strange to call any senior league team a dynasty. But times were different.

“I don’t think in our league there were many ‘rec’ teams,” said Richard Schick, a six-foot-four left side who joined in 1989 after a season at the University of Saskatchewan.

“There was the Six Pack boys, who really drove us. That’s Russ van Buskirk, Norm Bootsman, it was a lot of those guys. This was far from rec. Maybe the post-games involved quite a bit of recreational stuff but when we were on court we were always striving to beat those guys. Those guys brought the best out of us.”

The Pizzazz lineup included a talented left side group in Schick, Paul Friesen and Kevin Brugger, who played two years at Trinity Western. Dunkley, Darren Colquhoun and Jason Moroz played middle, with Kevin Loewen and Rick Walker at right side. Wilson, who was actually recruited to play basketball at BU a year before joining the team, was the setter.

“I’ve always said I’m as competitive or more competitive than anyone I know but a couple of my good friends that were on that team, Richard Schick, Kevin Brugger, they always brought that fierce competitiveness,” Wilson said. “Between the three of us we always tried to lead that way.”

While Pizzazz quickly rose to the top of the Brandon league, dethroning Six Pack with a string of titles, Wheat City squads were always afterthoughts at provincials.

Teams including active and former U of M and University of Winnipeg players dominated the scene until 1993, when Pizzazz shocked the big-city clubs and won it all, punching their ticket to Vancouver for senior men’s nationals.

The strange thing is most of the guys had no idea that was even possible.

“We were just going there to compete hard and hope we win. All of a sudden they’re telling you ‘The national championships are in Vancouver. if you guys can make that work financially, Volleyball Manitoba will kick in some money. You might have to do a bit of fundraising,’ and that’s exactly what we did,” Wilson said.

Paul Friesen: “That was pretty cool. It was kind of a last-minute thing if I remember right. I don’t think we realized we had that opportunity to start with.

Richard Schick: “You’re going to pay our entry to go to nationals, and maybe throw in a few thousand bucks for expenses? … For us it was a big deal for sure.”

Grant Wilson: “We can still remember walking into War Memorial Gym in Vancouver just almost being awestruck at playing volleyball at a high level in a place like that. I joke with Richard Schick, who went on to coach there, I said ‘Looking back, when we started coaching against each other, that didn’t seem like the same facility.’ That seemed like an out-of-world experience that happened somewhere else.”

If they thought that was special, what followed two years later was downright unbelievable. In their third of four consecutive national championship appearances, this time in Calgary in 1995, Pizzazz took on Canuck Stuff. The team featured the likes of Terry Gagnon, Don Saxton, Al Coulter and more guys that represented Canada at the 1992 Olympic Games.

Kevin Brugger: “You grow up watching them, then all of a sudden you’re playing with them and you’re competing with them … You look through the net and you’re just trying to beat them … it is surreal. It’s one of those things you strive for. It was fabulous, it was a great experience playing those guys.”

Paul Friesen: “Huge thrill, just to see how they went about getting ready for the game, very professional attitude. That was really cool to be able to play against guys I’d watched on TV, that was awesome.”

Grant Wilson: “We’re playing these guys, guys we grew up watching on television and next thing you know it’s 14-14 in a game to 15 in those days. It was pre-rally point. We’re two points away from beating the guys we considered idols. Honestly, I thought we were going to win and that’s how I’ve always been as a competitor. We had no business beating them, we probably had no business being on the court with them. We pushed them right to the end and ended up losing 16-14, but that was the ‘Aha’ moment that we may be some small-town guys from Brandon that don’t have any experience, but we can compete with anybody.”

Doug Carmichael: “We woke the giant up … The next game was ‘Put your helmets on.’”

Paul Friesen: “Terry Gagnon left a little spot on my eye. I couldn’t see properly for a few weeks after he hit a ball through my block that kind of spun on my eyeball.”

The national team stars came out on top, but the rag-tag band from Brandon bounced back.

Pizzazz finished sixth in the country the following year at Saskatoon, its fourth and final trip to nationals. Still, as the team aged and evolved, it dominated locally. In the same way success breeds success when it comes to top university programs attracting talent, young high school stars moving to Brandon for school or work made their way onto the roster. Often, Wilson’s savvy recruiting ability that helped the Bobcats become a force at the U Sports level factored in.

They got six-foot-eight Carmichael to join as a middle after a five-season stint with the BU basketball team — including three national titles. Former opponents like Norm Bootsman and Ed Zalusky jumped ship, and Alwin Friesen wasted little time connecting with Pizzazz when he moved from Winkler for school.

“After (my first) game they said ‘Well, we really don’t need another player but we definitely don’t want to play against you, so you’re in,’” he chuckled.

Pizzazz also played in a number of tournaments each year, travelling to Winnipeg, Regina and almost always made a trip to Minot, N.D.

The trips, Christmas parties and barbecues included significant others, who also grew close over the years. Then they became family affairs. Little did the players know, the next generation of Wheat City volleyball stars were getting their first glimpses of the game.

 

In the college ranks, Zane Zalusky played for ACC, Slate’s son Nolan is there now, Walker’s stepdaughter Teagan Cross played for Lakeland in Alberta.

Brock Carmichael captured a Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference title with Canadian Mennonite University in 2020.

Wilson’s son Reece headed west to College of the Rockies and has since made the leap to U Sports, transferring to the University of the Fraser Valley.

The Bobcat connection is the most frequent as Alwin Friesen’s son Tom joined the team in 2020, Colby Carmichael committed for next year, Paul’s son Jared redshirted for BU in 2013-14, and Seth went on to a five-year career in blue and gold, capturing the 2019 Canada West title and earning an all-star nod at nationals.

Also, Colquhoun moved to Calgary and coaches varsity ball at E.P. Scarlett, where graduated BU liberos Jeremy Davies and Bryton Such played.

More than 10 of their children have spent time with U Sports or college teams. It’s safe to say that’s no coincidence. The kids were exposed to the game from a young age, and many of the players have or still coach at various levels around western Manitoba.

Paul Friesen: “I don’t think it’s very unnatural for that to happen … If you want your kid to play, then they say ‘We need a coach.’ Everybody looks at you because they know you played.”

Doug Carmichael: “All those kids are gym rats. I was coaching Colby at Riverheights in Grade 7 for volleyball and basketball. Grant’s been working with Reece in all sorts of sports. They’re all athletic kids. When you’re in the gym watching dad play, that spills over into the interest the kids have. They naturally want to do the same.”

Ken Slate: “You grow up and your parents guide you. I coached my own son through Grant’s program. Grant coached Reece, Kevin maybe never coached Brooklyn but was always involved and would work with her outside of the programs and support them. That was the way we grew up, you passed it on to your kids.”

Kevin Brugger: “For the most part everybody knows how to play and are experienced in the sport, so we know what it takes for our kids if they want to be players at that level. We’re definitely supporting them and putting them through the proper channels so they can excel if that’s what they want.”

Grant Wilson: “For those of us that have had our kids go on to U Sports or college, I’m a firm believer that a lot of that comes back to early exposure … You can go to a community centre rink and see a six or seven, eight-year-old kid, you see them stick-handling and raising a puck and go ‘Wow, that’s amazing, how does a young kid do that?’ They’ve been exposed to it.

“I can still remember Reece when he was seven years old coming to one of our Bobcat practices and playing pepper with Sebastien Steigmeier. People went ‘He’s seven years old and he’s playing pepper?’ Well, he’s been exposed to it since he was one year old. If the opportunity is presented and the kids enjoy it and gravitate to it, great. If they don’t, maybe it’s going to be in a different sport and that’s great too. I think there’s definitely a correlation there.”

Paul Friesen: “I always said I wanted to play long enough that my kids would remember watching me, and I think I did. Seth talks about how one of his earliest memories was being in the gym watching volleyball.”

Of course, it had to end at some point. For Pizzazz it was the 2004-05 season, before which Wilson sat the team down and said it would be his last year. He took the team over from Slate when he moved away for a few years and was about to get a whole lot busier as he’d join Russ Paddock as an assistant coach for BU’s inaugural Canada West season in 2005.

Some of the guys agreed it’d be one last ride; others went on to play for other teams for a few years.

But they had one last job to do. After all, it’d be weird not to win a league title after 15 in a row.

It nearly didn’t happen. They were down 2-0 and 23-20 in the final, but managed to steal the set, win the fourth and cruise to a 15-2 victory in the fifth.

While they’re more than 16 years removed from championship No. 16, the legacy of a simple men’s league team lives on. Staying involved in a competitive environment into their late-30s and beyond fuelled passion for coaching and giving back. Wilson runs the Brandon Volleyball Club and a number of the guys coach in the system.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the team still got together regularly and have a group chat to keep in touch.

“The whole experience of competing in those (nationals) and being a part of it is something we won’t forget,” Wilson said.

Added Paul Friesen: “It certainly became much like a family. We would get together, get our kids together at people’s cottages, golf together, it’s gone way beyond volleyball.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @thomasmfriesen